Posted 15 years ago
Belltown
(241 items)
This is a photo from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner's photo morgue. It was shot in the late 1950s, as residents of Chavez Ravine were forced to sell their property in the face of prices that got lower every day (the gambit was calculated to force homeowners to panic and sell fast, which many did).
On the face of it, it's a pretty boring photograph, but if you look at it closely you notice a police car parked on the closest horizontal street, another on the next horizontal street, and a third on the far-right edge of of the image. The large trucks say Republic Van Lines on their sides. People are being moved out to make way for the Dodgers, who picked up this prime piece of real estate for a song. The LAPD is on the scene to make sure there's no trouble.
Wow -- lived out in LaLa land all my life, and never knew the story -- thanks for sharing this fascinating photo.
More about the history of how the Dodgers ''scored'' the land -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodger_Stadium
My father was born there and it always amazes me to see the old photos.
Thanks for sharing!
For some fascinating pictures of Chavez Ravine prior to Dodger Land, look for a book titled "A Los Angeles Story" by Don Normark. I was just given a copy.